


Kettledrum

by recrudescence



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 14:48:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/recrudescence/pseuds/recrudescence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River was in Kaylee's hammock. That part was a little surprising, but nothing extraordinary. She was raptly reading one of Jayne's magazines. That part most emphatically was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kettledrum

River was in Kaylee’s hammock. That part was a little surprising, but nothing extraordinary.

She was raptly reading one of Jayne’s magazines. That part most emphatically was.

Trying to sneak up on a genius was probably an anemically formed strategy to begin with, but Kaylee curiously crept behind her anyway, doing her best to crane her neck and keep quiet in case River heard her coming and tried to stash the thing away.

“He gave it to me for a birthday present,” said River, not looking up, making Kaylee freeze mid-step. “Said I needed an education.

“It’s your birthday?” Kaylee asked dumbly.

“No. But it’s the thought that counts,” River solemnly informed her.

“Honey, I don’t think Jayne and thought go hand in hand all that often.”

“It’s very interesting.” River turned another page.

Kaylee grinned and started unlacing her boots. “Lemme see.”

The cradle of bright-striped canvas wasn’t meant to comfortably hold two, but they managed, draping over each other and giggling at the more improbable images of girls with genetically, surgically, digitally altered bodies that had been poured into fetish costumes or were spilling out of intricate lingerie. Now and again, River would tilt her head or the magazine to one side and mutter under her breath about laws of physics and gravity and Kaylee would silently think maybe Jayne was right about her education having a few pertinent holes in it. Looking at sex in terms of logic and practicality seemed to defeat the purpose of sex to begin with.

And then River squirmed up against her in a wave of skinny limbs and printed material and her breath tickled Kaylee’s ear when she whispered, “Your nipples are hard.”

Kaylee tried to laugh that off, but River was looking at her in a way that made laughter dry in her throat and her whole body freeze up like she’d been caught doing something terrible. And River hummed into her ear, warm and sweet and a little insane, closer to her than Simon would probably ever come.

“It’s okay.” River slid a hand up her stomach and touched, through the lace of her bra. “I want to, you want to, so that makes it okay.” Simple enough. Kaylee was sure it couldn’t be that simple. “Mine too. See?”

Straps of her dress, straps of her bra, both drawn down. River’s nipples were tight and dark and very small.

She could remember when she’d volunteered to help him. In the early days, when he was still inching towards trust, Simon had barely let River out of his sight. Done everything but monitor her in the showers, since he’d had no idea early on what was wrong with her, how self-sufficient she was, whether she was suicidal.

Kaylee had been the one to stand by where he couldn’t. Needing to categorize and diagnose, grappling for anything that could be a symptom, even if it seemed like nothing, even if seen by someone else. Sinking fully clothed onto the shower seat under the spray, cloth plastered to her skin and River’s head heavy on her shoulder, River looking at her with big eyes and telling her she was the way a girl _should be_. Kaylee hadn’t been sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult, so she had just let River her use her own shampoo instead of Simon’s. Prattling about inconsequential, everyday things. _We’ll get you your own things next time we’re planetside, so just tell me the smells you like and I can pick you up something pretty_.

River had already been wearing some of her old clothes as it was. _Still _was, right up until Kaylee’s hand found the hem of that sunset-colored skirt and lifted it up a little higher.

Sturdy-drab cargo pants rucked around her ankles, toes curled in mismatched socks; this half-naked, half-sane piece of a person went solemnly drawing her fingertips back and forth over the lips of Kaylee’s cunt through the fabric of her panties. Like seeing her for the first time all over again, screaming and sobbing her way out of that box, and she’d been beautiful even then, and Kaylee was sure Simon would kill her, wouldn’t he? But wasn’t this just another way of taking care of River? Wasn’t it?

River, who smiled and stretched with pleasure when Kaylee kissed her throat, same as she’d smiled when tepid water sprayed down on both of them and she’d told Kaylee _apricots_ in a tone full of certainty.

Ducking, licking up between her legs and dipping dainty fingertips inside her. River’s dress was pushed up over her hips and down below her breasts. Before her vision went the way of the secondhand alternator she’d been desperate enough to buy a few weeks back, Kaylee could glimpse the dirty soles of bare, arching feet.

The hammock swayed and River licked Kaylee from her fingers.

“You have vibrators.” River’s voice was muffled against her sternum, thin fingers pensively pinching at a nipple before her tongue curled around it. “I could put one inside you. Would you like that?”

Kaylee couldn’t answer. River was kneading over her hips, lapping delicately at her cunt, and then her fingers rolled back into her, slenderslick.

“I think you would,” River mumbled, nuzzling contently up against her. Fingers still fidgeting, playing over her, now and then one or two easing their way inside, again and again. “I’d use a little one first, then bigger, and watch. Maybe you could try one on me, too. It’s an integral part of adolescence and mine’s running out.”

“Ain’t your birthday yet,” Kaylee managed, and ran a hand through the apricot-scented hair spilling over her bare stomach.


End file.
